The Meeting
by md1347
Summary: My name is Noah and I'm an alcoholic and drug addict. I've been sober for two weeks.


**The Meeting**

by Mike Douglas

_Special thanks to nezabudka1 for help with editing the story._

Rating: PG

_Disclaimer: Luke, Noah, and all related characters, plots, and locations are property of As the World Turns, Telenext Media, and CBS Television. No profit is made from this fan creation. No copyright infringement is intended!_

This was the tenth meeting Noah has attended. He had a strange feeling come over him right before the meeting started but he couldn't place it. Today was the day that he finally had the nerve to stand up. His life was finally turning around. He got a call from his agent in Los Angeles needing him back there in a month's time to start a new directing gig.

"My name is Noah and I'm an alcoholic and drug addict. I've been sober for two weeks."

"Hi, Noah." everyone in the room replied.

"My heart will never love anyone again. That's why I drink." Noah stated and then stopped.

"Please continue." Tom, the group leader said. Noah had met with him multiple times for one on one counseling, which helped him figure out the underlying trigger for Noah's drinking. Luke.

"I started drinking three years ago, after my life went to shit." Noah sighed. "I was blinded in an accident and pulled away from my boyfriend. He only wanted to help me but I couldn't accept his help. You see, he wanted to do everything for me, but I needed to learn how to do things for myself... learn how to be blind. It caused a lot of conflict between us and he broke it off with me before I had the surgery that gave me my sight back."

"My father was in the military. He was gone a lot and I was left alone. I've always had to be independent. I didn't know how to let someone do things for me. Anyway, I moved to Oakdale, Illinois to attend film school and to intern at a TV station. That's when I met him. I was late on my first day and he totally busted me. He was a total jerk that day, but it was love at first sight and we had three tumultuous years together."

"What made it tumultuous?" asked Tom.

"I wasn't out when we met. I started dating a woman at the TV station but I was in denial. I loved Luke but was afraid to come out and admit my feelings. My father caught us kissing one day and when I finally did come out, well, my father didn't like it and shot him. Luke was paralyzed for a while but he recovered with my help and we started dating."

"That's tumultuous all right."

Noah laughed. "That's not even the half of it. My father told me that my mother was dead my whole life but it turned out that he shot and killed my mother before he shot Luke, I got married to a woman to help her stay in the country, my father faked his own death, I wanted to enlist in the army after he died out of some sort of warped sense of duty to him, met Cyndi Lauper, Luke stole a college election but he blamed me for telling the truth, Luke kissed his step-grandfather, I was kidnapped and shot in the arm, I was kissed by one of my teachers and I was blinded in an accident. Luke broke up with me for the final time. He fell in love with my doctor."

"That's fucked up." said Ramsey, one of the members.

Noah shook his head in agreement and continued, "He hid it from me. I found out by catching them kissing. His new boyfriend died, five months later, right after I received a grant to go out to Los Angeles to make a film. The day I left, he said that he would come out to Los Angeles to visit but he never did. I had hoped that we could rekindle our relationship but I guess it wasn't meant to be."

"What happened next?" Tom, at this point, wanted to know more about Noah's story.

"Well, when I finished my movie, that's when things went to shit. Luke stopped calling and my career stalled for a while. I thought I would go to Los Angeles, kick ass and be a huge success but I wasn't. That's not the way it works in Hollywood for most people. During that time, I started drinking to forget my dead love life and my dying career. I ended up drunk all the time, only that didn't stop killing the pain anymore, so I started doing some light drugs. My career is now picking up again and I want to be clean. I'll only be here for another month before I need to move back to Los Angeles."

Noah could hear someone begin to sniffle behind him but he didn't want to face anyone, so he didn't bother to turn around and look.

"Where is Luke now?" asked Tom

"I have no idea. He never came out to Los Angeles to be with me. I haven't seen or talked to him in two years. I'm not even sure he loves me anymore or that I moved here to Atlanta."

Noah sat down, having said way too much, he thought.

"Thank you for sharing your story, Noah." Tom was impressed that Noah had so much after introducing himself to the group for the first time. He'd been reluctant in the past to even talk to her, in their one on one sessions about why he was drinking. "Who's next?"

Noah could hear someone getting up behind him and start to talk. The voice sounded familiar to Noah.

"Hi, my name is Luke and I'm an alcoholic..."

The End.


End file.
